VITA
"Versatile, with a shimmering rich sound and compelling stage presence Martha Harreiter instantly captivates her audience.
Her warm soprano voice exudes beauty, light and excitement."
Specialized in Lied repertoire, the colourful soprano is Fellow of the Heidelberg Lied Academy with Thomas Hampson and holds scholarships scholarships, amongst others, of the International Summer Academy Mozarteum with Wolfgang Holzmair and the Margreet Honig Summer Academy.
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Upcoming engagements include this year's production of the Neuburger Kammeroper, where Martha Harreiter will sing Baroness Galeotti in Luigi Ricci's Chi dura vince (dt. Eine Rosskur) in July 2024. Several song and concert projects in Austria will follow in the second half of the year. Spiritual masses and concerts round off the soprano’s season.
Martha Harreiter regularly engages herself in chamber music projects, recently i.a. with Joseph Avila and Nora Romanoff-Schwarzberg. She has also performed as a soloist in several editions of the chamber music festival "Joie de vivre". Another focus of her performances is concert repertoire, especially works by W.A. Mozart, where she has performed several concerts with his Exsultate, jubilate and the Mozart Requiem, among others.
The soprano made her debut on stage at the Theater an der Rott (Bavaria, Germany) in 2017 with Jacques Offenbach's "Parisian Life". There she also sang in a staged version of Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana". In 2017 she gave the world premiere of Larry Coryell's opera "Anna Karenina" with the Russian Philharmonic under Sergey Tararin in Kaluga (Russia). In the oratorio repertoire, Martha Harreiter has sung W.A. Mozart's Great Mass in C minor under the baton of Erwin Ortner in Sankt Pölten Cathedral, Mozart's Coronation Mass with the Vienna Ensemble and Felix Mendelssohn's hymn "Hör mein Bitten" for solo soprano in concerts in Vienna and Stockholm. For 2019, Martha Harreiter accepted another invitation from the Theater an der Rott, where she appeared in an Offenbach revue under Caspar Richter. During the stage abstinence due to the COVID19 crisis, Martha Harreiter kept in touch with her audience through house concerts. In Thomas Hampson's World of Song on IDAGIO she was involved in shedding light on forgotten female composers, their art and significance for the song scene. In addition, she devoted herself to the development of new concert programs and co-founded interdisciplinary art projects.
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Calling Lied a matter very close to her heart, Martha Harreiter has been singing Lied recitals in Vienna, Salzburg, Heidelberg, Berlin, Stockholm and many more locations. Her repertoire spans from the Early Baroque, to the Viennese Classic and the Romantic period (Lied, Mélodie) up to contemporary songs. She has been working, amongst others, with the accompanists Stephan Matthias Lademann, Markus Hadulla, Ammiel Bushakevitz, Yuto Kiguchi, Joseph Avila, Stephen Delaney and Daniel Beskow. Most recently, Martha Harreiter and the Swedish pianist D. Beskow presented a new Lied program with works and texts by and about W.A. Mozart (title: The Magic of Serenity).
Born in Graz, Martha Harreiter first studied at the Salzburg Mozarteum and with Christa Ratzenböck at the Bruckner University Linz. She then studied with Rannveig Braga-Postl and Tanya Aspelmeier at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Since 2018 she has been working with Julie Kaufmann, Berlin. The soprano attended numerous master classes, i.a. with Thomas Hampson, Wolfgang Holzmair, Graham Johnson, Emma Kirkby and Helene Schneiderman. In 2022, Harreiter was selected for the Margreet Honig Summer Academy. She strengthened her education in the field of historical performance practice with M.C. Kiehr (baroque technique), Stefan Gottfried and KS Michael Schade.
Martha Harreiter studied vocal pedagogy (with diploma) at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. She was a scholarship holder of the private foundation “Vita Activa” which organises concerts in old people's homes and nursing homes. As a second subject, the soprano completed a law degree with distinction, worked as a lawyer, and recently successfully completed her diploma program for civil mediation. At Konsens.Kultur, she is committed to promoting dialogue and consensus in the field of arts and culture.
The soprano especially enjoys spending her free time at her family’s farm in Austria. Also, she loves reading Rilke poems – ideally in the summers lying underneath a calm, widespread treetop.
Spring 2024